


A National Concern

by TheRealAdamSandler



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Alcohol, Dancing, Drug Use, Hangover, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Prom, flashbacks to high school, kind of a rewrite of underage drinking, subtle gay dee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-05-31 11:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19424893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRealAdamSandler/pseuds/TheRealAdamSandler
Summary: A charmac-y rewrite of the episode Underage Drinking: A National Concern.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> was gona write the whole thing and upload it all in one go but its taking to log to write the rest so im uploading it in bits!!!  
> will try to upload chapters weekly!!! theres probs only gonna be like ~4 though!!!
> 
> also im not super confident with my writing so if u have any suggestions on how to improve then please go ahead!!!

The jukebox is blasting a steady hip hop beat, the bass rumbles the ground, making Charlie’s feet feel light. Mac is leaning into Charlie and bopping along with him, nodding his head enthusiastically to the music. The two each have an arm slung heavily across each other’s shoulders, and Charlie is loving the weight and the closeness, but more specifically loving how comfortable Mac is around him when he’s a few drinks in. It used to be that he wouldn’t make contact with Charlie aside from a high-five or a quick bro-hug, and he’s been getting more touchy feely lately but right now Mac is almost on top of him, not quite sober enough to care that he’s breathing beer breath on Charlie’s neck. Mac swings his arm along to the beat, not caring that he’s spilling bits of his drink with every movement. The feeling of Macs warmth on his side gives him energy, he begins to bop around with more vigour, he can feel the warm air of Mac’s laughter hit his neck.

“I like what I’m seeing here!” Mac giggles down at Charlie with a large grin spread across his face. 

“I like what you’re doing!” Charlie smiles, looking Mac up and down.

“I like what you’re doing!” 

Charlie has no idea why looking at Mac right now makes his chest feel all stuffy. Its not like he hasn’t felt this before, he’s felt it a lot of times, and he only feels it when he’s with Mac. Macs the only person he feels truly comfortable around, so why does he sometimes get so jumpy when they’re together? Macs still looking at him with a stupid drunk smile. Charlie turns away from the look and takes a sip of his beer, still revelling in Macs presence. He tightens his grip on Macs shoulder with a smile, turning to him again.

“This is good, I feel good!”

“You look good!” Mac says, looking him over with a grin that’s actually more of a smirk.

Wow. Does Charlie feel like that just might be a little gay? Yeah. Does he honestly give a shit? Not at all; in fact, it makes his heart stutter and his cheeks blush. Charlies had a thing for Mac for years now, he’s always kept it quiet because he didn’t want to scare Mac off for liking him, or just for liking dudes in general. Charlies never understood why people are so obsessed with not seeming gay, Particularly Mac. The guy is constantly stressing and reiterating the fact that he’s not gay when it’s been pretty obvious to Charlie that he’s totally gay since middle school. Charlie doesn’t get why Macs so uncomfortable with the idea of being gay, but he understands that coming to terms with stuff like that can be hard, especially when you insist you’re not gay every single day of your life. But come on, the way he said ‘you look good’? There’s no way in hell he’s straight. All Charlie can do in response is smile way too wide.

“I feel like, uh- I feel like dancin’!” He yells over the jukebox, breaking away from Macs grip on his shoulder to do a little ditty.

“Whoah! You should, bro!” Mac encourages, watching Charlie bounce to the music.

“Yeah! Come on!” Charlie says, gesturing for Mac to join him.

“What?! No, you go!” Mac yells, nodding towards the ‘dancefloor’ – which is just the area where the pool table usually stands- Charlie rolls his eyes and takes Macs hand in his.

“Come on! It’ll be fun!” Charlie chuckles and guides Mac into the crowd of clustered people. The alcohol helps them let go of any self-consciousness, the two dance like only the other is watching, getting lost in the tempo. Charlie is showing off moves from what has to be a choreographed routine, Mac watches the moves while stepping from side to side. The song fades to an end, granting both of them a brief respite.

“You’re good!” Mac amuses, still bopping his head despite the lack of music. 

“I know I am!” They laugh, and the music starts back up again.

The night goes on and the two dance it away, occasionally dancing closer and touching more than just friends do, and it feels right. They both ignore their surroundings and just focus on one another. They’re both dancing against each other when Dennis pulls the jukebox from the wall, bringing their action to an abrupt end. Mac backs up, pulled away from his haze, he looks up to see all the bargoers funnelling out the door collectively groaning. Mac looks to Charlie silently then away again, instead walking to where Dee is standing behind the bar. Charlie follows and sits next to him at the bar. He tunes out the arguing. 

\--

Charlie takes another sip from his drink, attempting to block out the sound of squeaky teenage laughter. Him and Mac are perched next to each other on barstools while Dennis tends bar, pouring out drinks for a literal 14 year old. Apparently, the result of last night’s argument was that they were now letting kids into the bar. Charlie thought it was a bad idea at first but when Mac sat him down to re-explain how it worked he understood it. He doesn’t remember what Mac had said while he was explaining though, he was mostly distracted by Macs arms, and how his arm occasionally brushes his whenever one of them moves. Dennis passes of the ice filled drinks to the kid who happily takes them back to a booth where his friends all cheer for him. Charlie nudges Mac with a gentle elbow.

“Look how much fun they’re having, man.” He says, nodding to the full house.

“Of course they’re having fun, they haven’t realised how much life sucks yet.” Mac says, taking a drink from his pint. Charlies not too sure what he means by that, Charlies got a lot more going for him now than he did in high school. Sure, he’s not exactly living the high life but at least now he doesn’t have to be afraid of falling asleep at home and he’s had way less screaming matches with teachers than he’s had then when he was in school. 

Charlie thinks back to the times when Charlie would be crying in the school bathroom and Mac would sit there wordlessly and hold him. Or when he would break into Macs house early in the morning to nap with him in his bed, how Mac would act all pissed off for waking him up but they both loved the company. Charlie thinks back to last night for the hundredth time today. Mac so close to him and not giving a shit if anyone saw, it reminded Charlie of how Mac was when they were kids. Not that Mac would dance up on him when he was a kid, but it reminded him of the emotional connection and want to be together they shared. Charlie pushes the thoughts away from his brain.

“Remember how great high school was? All those parties, no responsibilities...” Charlie trails off wistfully.

“God yeah, high school was the best!” Mac beams. Dennis interrupts with a hum.

“Do you guys even remember high school?” He gives the reminiscent duo a quizzical look from where he’s wiping down a glass. “I don’t think it happened the way you think.”

Mac’s eyebrows scrunch up, which makes Charlie smile. “What do you mean?” Mac asks.

Dennis, as dramatic as ever, rolls his eyes and puts the glass down. “What I mean Mac is that the only reason you got to hang out with me and the cool kids was ‘cause you sold us all weed. Everybody thought you were an asshole.” Dennis sneers. 

Mac looks taken aback. He straightens up in his seat, preparing to defend himself. “I was popular!” He almost shrieks, shaking his head in disbelief. Charlie decides to jump in before it turns into another screaming match between Mac and Dennis.

“You were very popular! And I like to think I was pretty popular myself.” He nods and Mac nods with him, he thinks back to high school when him and Mac would sneak into parties and leave early with the cool kids because it was ‘too lame’ or whatever.

Dennis gives him an arrogant smile. “You were. You were popular like a…. like a clown is popular.”

“What?”

“Yeah! You made us all laugh and all the guys knew you couldn’t sleep with their girlfriends.” He says with a small malicious grin, nodding to Mac.

Charlies jaw clamps shut, his eyes widen at the implication of Dennis’ words, he feels his breath get caught in his throat. Did he say what he thought he said? And did it mean what he thought it meant? How could Dennis know? Was how Charlie felt about Mac just common knowledge? He bristles, slams his glass into the counter and stands up, Mac and Dennis both looking at him with wide eyes.

“YEAH? WELL TIM MURPHY SLEPT WITH YOUR PROM DATE.” Charlie screeches, the crowd goes quiet for a second as Charlie storms away into the keg room. The door slams behind him and crowd continues its low murmur. Mac and Dennis watch after him in shock. Macs grip on his drink grows stronger.

“Dude! What’s wrong with you!” Mac scolds, turning back to Dennis with wide arms gesturing a ‘what the fuck, man’. All Dennis does in reply is scoff and curl his lip, still absentmindedly wiping down a glass.

“Whatever. I’ll leave you to creep on the kids.” Mac hisses, standing up from his seat and quickly drinking down the last bit of beer in his beer mug. Dennis turns to him again.

“Creep? You wanna talk about creepy? You guys sniffing glue in Charlies basement was creepy.”

Mac huffs in reply, puts his beer down, and turns to head to the keg room. It is a very well known fact that Dennis can be an asshole but that was just uncalled for; Charlie is sensitive about certain things and Dennis knows that, and instead of respecting it he used it against him. Back when they were kids, Mac and Charlie were inseparable, holding hands, smoking cigarette butts and throwing bottles at stray dogs. They spent their hours from sunrise to sunset with each other, but when they entered high school, things changed. The groups of cool kids started to call Mac and Charlie gay for always being together. Charlie didn’t want to stop glassing dogs, didn’t want to stop holding hands, but whenever he’d suggest to, Mac would shut him down. Charlie was hurt by it all, and in attempt to thwart the bullying Mac started to be better friends with other kids. They both branched out, Mac more so, where as Charlie never really got along with other people as he did with Mac. Despite the new friends and the bullying (which had mostly stopped aside from casual teasing due to Mac befriending the popular kids) Charlie would still cling onto Mac, and Mac would still cling to Charlie, though he would never admit it.

Mac opens the door to the keg room and is wafted with the overwhelming scent of mould and beer, but he ducks his head in anyway. Its dark, but Mac can make out the shape of Charlie leaning back on one of the kegs with his head down, he looks like a kicked puppy. Mac doesn’t turn the light on, he knows Charlie can be sensitive to specific things and if he didn’t turn the lights on himself then he doesn’t want them on. Instead Mac stands still in the doorway with a concerned expression on his face.

“You alright man?” He asks cautiously. His voice sounded so small, it surprised Mac when he heard it come out of his mouth.

“Yeah, just… give me a second.” Charlies voice is quiet and a tad croaky from his sudden screaming outburst, Mac’s just glad to hear him talking and not shutting down. Mac stands and waits for Charlie, listening to him breathe. Seeing Charlie sitting quietly trying to gather himself reminds Mac of sitting on the empty bathroom floor in high school, listening to Charlie crying quietly from inside the stall while he waited outside, advising Charlie to take deep breaths. Charlie looks just as small right now as he did back then. Charlie sheepishly looks over to Mac.

“Did you know?” He asks. Mac seems confused, as if it’s a trick question.

“Uh, yeah dude. You were super queer in high school.” He says bluntly.

“Oh.” Charlie mutters, looking back down to focus on his hands. He doesn’t remember being that obvious about it, but he doesn’t remember a lot of things in general. “And… you’re cool with it?”

Mac laughs. “Yeah man, as long as you don’t fag out and try to fuck me.” Charlie stiffens, feeling an ice cold pang shoot through his heart. He forces out a too-loud laugh and pretends he doesn’t care about Macs homophobia. He doesn’t understand it, doesn’t understand how Mac can just ignore the way they were the night before and erase it from history, how he could so quickly forget about it when it was playing over and over in Charlies head. Charlie tries his best to brush it off. He stands up and wipes his sweaty hands off on his tattered jeans.

They exit the keg room and avoid Dennis, whose watching them with eagle eyes from behind the bar. They instead chose to sit at one of the benches, they both mindlessly drink the half empty abandoned drinks sitting there already. The night goes on and Charlie ends up breaking up a fight between two kids, Mac looks at him like a king, eyes smiling with admiration. He lays a hand on Charlies shoulder affectionately and it feels warm. Charlie struggles to accept the complements coming from Macs mouth. The thoughts of last night have been replaced by the words Mac had said in the keg room.

Mac is drunker than he usually is at this time of night and they both decide to call it in and head to Charlie’s place, leaving Dennis and Dee close the bar by themselves. Dennis owes them anyway. Charlie would normally be ecstatic about Mac sleeping over, but his words haunt him, and he’s scared to even touch Mac. He still lets Mac throw his arm around his shoulders and helps him walk back to Charlie’s apartment. Charlie opens the door and Mac hits the lumpy bed like a ton of bricks, he is out almost immediately. Charlie kicks his shoes off and crawls onto the other side of the bed, careful to avoid touching Mac, who is sprawled out over the majority of the beds surface. He lays his head onto the pillow with his knees pressed against his torso, and watches Macs chest rise and fall from a distance.

\--


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> party time :)

Mac’s eyes blink open to the unwelcome light streaming in from the window. He shuts his eyes closed again with a groan as the light hits his brain and makes it ache uncomfortably. His throat burns, and he needs to piss but he can’t find the motivation in him to stand up. The pillow his head is pressed against is covered with drool, the sheet is pulled off of him, and the body across from him is snoring soundly. Its only now that Mac realises that he’s not home. He squints his eyes open again, and makes out the shape of Charlie, who is curled up on the very edge of the bed and hugging the sheet to his chest, a faint snore accompanying his breathing. He looks like a cat, all curled up and purring. Mac spikes the sudden thought of curling around Charlie and going back to sleep from his mind. He feels the weight of shame gather in his stomach. Instead, Mac sits up and swings his legs off the side of the bed, sitting there for a second to let his brain adjust before he stands up and shuffles to the bathroom.

Charlie stirs when he hears the toilet flush, waking up and turning to face the other way. His jeans are sticking to his skin uncomfortably and the feeling is so unpleasant it makes Charlie want to vomit. Mac walks back into the room and heavily lands face first back on the bed with a groan, his fingers rubbing circles against his temples. Charlie peaks his head up from the sheet that’s obscuring his vision. 

“You’kay?” Charlie sleepily slurs his words together. He sounds so small, it makes Macs heart swell a bit.

“Hangover” Mac mumbles from where his face is pressed against the bed.

Charlie lifts his head and blinks slowly. “Oh… you want aspirin?” 

“Uh, yeah, you got some?” Mac shifts his face to look over at Charlie. Charlie smiles and nods, abruptly getting up from the bed and shuffling around in ‘kitchen’ area (which is just a microwave, hot plate, and a bunch of pots and pans on a few fold-out tables) 

Macs mind is still swimming in a haze of tiredness and katzenjammer, he absentmindedly watches Charlie go through the cupboards. 

Mac doesn’t know what is going on, but he feels like something is off with Charlie, like he’s doing something different than usual but he just can’t place his finger on it. He listens to Charlie rattle around in the cupboards and thinks back to last night, the memories are hazy as they always are when he’s drunk, but he remembers how Dennis was being a dick to Charlie, how he insulted both of them, calling them creepy or losers or whatever the fuck else he said. Dennis was an asshole, and he didn’t know shit. Huffing glue in the basement with Charlie was the best. They would spend hours down there back when they were teenagers, completely fucked off their minds on glue and alcohol. It was the one place where they could sit as close as they wanted to and fall asleep together on the couch and no one would tease them for it because it was just them. It got Mac thinking.

Mac props himself up on the bed with an elbow and turns to Charlie, who is still rummaging around in the cupboard. “Hey dude… You got any glue?”

Charlie stops his rattling around and surprisedly looks at Mac with a small grin. “We haven’t done glue in ages man!” 

Mac can’t help but mimic his smile. Charlies happiness is always so contagious. Charlie cheerfully jumps over the bed and ducks underneath it, quickly pulling out an unopened bottle of Elmer’s glue and a Ziploc bag, like he had it prepared earlier. Mac sits up on the bed.

“it’ll probably help your hangover too.” Charlie says while enthusiastically sitting back onto the bed with crossed legs. Mac doubts it will help, and he doubts that Elmer’s glue would work, but doesn’t say anything that would ruin Charlies excitement. Charlie opens the bag and pours in some of the glue with a little giggle. He brings the bag to his nose to take a quick whiff, frowning a bit when it does absolutely nothing. He tries again with a bigger huff.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work, dude.” Mac says, leaning over Charlie to grab the bottle of glue. Charlie only mumbles in response, his nose still in the bag, taking shallow breaths in attempt to get the glue to work. Mac takes one glance at the label on the glue and can see the problem. He’s confused as to why Charlie would have bought glue that’s explicitly for huffing when it says very clearly that it’s ‘non-toxic and safe’. It takes him a hot minute to remember that Charlie can’t read.

“I’m telling you, this is the wrong type of glue, Charlie. This is made for, like, kindergarteners or something.”

“No, this’ll work!” he says, his voice muffled slightly by the bag.

“No, this says it’s ‘non-toxic and safe’. We don’t want safe, we want toxic.” Mac puts softly, but firmly.

“Somethings happening!” Charlie yells through the bag, still breathing like a goddamn maniac. 

“Nothing is going to happen.” Mac shakes his head and tosses the bottle of glue back onto the bed.

“Somethings happening!” Charlies breathing is starting to worry Mac. His chest is rapidly rising and falling way too fast.  
Mac snatches the bag of glue from Charlies hands, Charlie whines and goes to grab the bag back, but Mac pushes his chest back with his arm as a signal to calm the fuck down. 

“Nothing is going to happen” He says sternly. Charlie looks at him with wide eyes, Mac’s hand is still pressing into Charlies collarbone, just above his chest. He can feel how warm Charlies skin is through his shirt. He feels Charlies chest begin to slow down and take deeper breaths, but his heart is still racing. Mac can’t exactly tell but for a split second he swears Charlies eyes dart down to his lips. Macs eyebrows rise, looking silently into Charlies eyes. They’re impossibly big, this time Charlie very clearly looks back down to Macs lips, flicking his tongue to wet his own, then back up to Mac with a slight urgency. It does something to Macs heart and he can’t help but lean in. Oh shit.

The phone rings louder than it usually does, ripping Mac away from his thoughts and pushing himself off Charlie by reflex. He averts his eyes and backs up on the bed, not realising just how close he leaned in to Charlie. _Was he going to kiss him?_ Charlie takes a breath to gather himself and hurriedly answers the phone.

“Hello?” Charlie asks into the phone with a voice so high that it shocks himself to hear it come out his mouth. Mac can’t look at him without feeling his face heat up, instead he focusses on the glue bottle, reading through the ingredients in an attempt to get his heart to calm down. But his mind stop wondering about what would’ve happened if the phone hadn’t rung. How he leaned in without even thinking about what he was doing. How helpless and pretty Charlie looked. How hypnotized he was in that moment, so ready to forget about everything and just go for it, how he felt like he was waiting for this moment all his life. He wanted to hit himself for it. Glue begins to spill onto Mac’s hand, he only now realises how hard he was squeezing the bottle.

Charlie clears his throat and hangs up the phone, looking over to Mac bashfully and stuttering over his words slightly. “Uh, that was that girl, Sara. The one I rescued from that kid? Her parents are out of town and she’s having a party.”

Mac doesn’t think about Charlies question and instead wonders why Sara had Charlies number, slightly offended at the thought that Charlie would so easily give his number out to some kid he talked to like one time. “What do you say?” Charlie says with a small smile on his lips that makes Macs heart melt. Right, the party. Going partying with a bunch of kids doesn’t sound like a good idea, and if the rest of the gang were here they would immediately turn it down, but the rest of the gang isn’t here. Mac struggles to look back at Charlie, but his throat closes up when his eyes land on Charlies, his heart doing weird things to him. Mac looks down to the floor as nonchalantly as he can and nods. 

\--

The house is in the suburbs and it’s full to the brim with music and chanting teenagers. Not that any of it is registering in Charlies head. Charlie is currently upside down, in the middle of a keg stand, his entire body is buzzing with adrenaline and alcohol, his brain focused on Macs voice. Two random kids from the party have their hands on each of Charlies legs to help hold him up, while Mac is holding the pump to his mouth. He can hear the crowd around him cheering, and he can see Mac kneeling next to him chanting along, but he can’t tell what they’re all saying anymore, his brain too fuzzy and stimulated. From the corner of his eye he sees two people walk into the kitchen and sees everyone go quiet and turn their heads to look at them. Mac abruptly pulls the pump from Charlies mouth, letting the beer flow from his lips, and the kids at his legs drop him, his legs making clumsy contact with the ground. Charlie scrambles to his feet, the foam in his mouth drip out with abandon. Dee and some teenager are standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Dee tries to casually put her hands in her jean pockets, but her hands run past them, not realising the pockets were fake. Instead she crosses her arms uncomfortably, looking around the room. Mac clears his throat. 

“Hey, Dee” Mac says quietly. Dee reluctantly looks back to the duo.

“Hey guys.” She struggles to smile, embarrassed she was caught at a party with a bunch of children and with a teenage boy holding her hand. Charlie wipes the beer and saliva from his chin and coughs.

“Uh, just, hanging out, you know?” Charlie stutters, also embarrassed to be caught living it up at a party with a bunch of toddlers. Dee just nods. The three of them look to the floor in silence.

“…You wanna do a keg stand?”

Dee absolutely nails her keg stand for a full 77 seconds and the entire house goes fuckin nuts. Mac and Charlie both let her legs down and as soon as she’s standing again her guy friend, Trey, is screaming about how well she did. Mac is laughing along with the crowd when he looks over to Charlie. Charlies not smiling, and his eyes are darting across the room, eventually landing on Mac, giving him a look that he hasn’t seen since high school. Suddenly he’s back in a house party in 1992, where the music was far too loud and Charlie would forget how to breathe. The look says, ‘get me the _FUCK_ out of here’. Mac wordlessly takes Charlies hand in his, too drunk to give a shit about it like he usually would be and leads the way through the crowded kitchen and out into the emptier living room. They both land on the big couch with an overdramatic thud. Mac turns to Charlie, still holding his hand, Charlies eyes are buggy and looking around the room manically, but he slowly calms down and breathes normally again.

“You good?” Mac asks after a while, sitting up in his seat, still having to raise his voice over the music to be heard. Charlie smiles from his slouched position and nods, squeezing Macs hand.

“Yeah… I think I’m going to take the rest of the night easy.” Charlie replies, suddenly sounding tired. Mac tries to hide the feeling of disappointment in his stomach, wishing he could get wasted with Charlie like they used to.

“You sure dude?” Mac asks, hope wavering his voice.

“Yeah man, you keep doing your thing though. I’ll be here.” Charlie smiles drunkly, his cheeks pink. Mac feels his chest begin to warm up.

“Alright man, I’ll be back to check on you!” He says, bringing himself to his feet, their interlocked hands coming apart. Charlie gives Mac a sleepy thumbs up. Mac can’t help but give Charlie an affectionate smile, he snatches someone’s drink from the coffee table and makes his way back to the kitchen. Charlie watches him leave with a small ache in his heart, almost feeling guilty for freaking out. His hand feels cold and empty, he takes a page from Macs book and grabs a random cup from the coffee table just so he can have something in his hands. 

Charlie can hear Mac howling along with the crowd in the kitchen, and while he’s happy to hear Mac be happy, he feels sadness in his chest. This was all too much like high school, the high school that Charlie forgot. Maybe he forgot it on purpose. Maybe he didn’t want to be reminded of the times when he and Mac would go to a party in the suburbs and Mac would leave Charlie behind to go laugh too loudly and smoke too much weed with the cool kids. Maybe he never wanted to think about how Mac would constantly try to prove himself to them, try to show them that he was cool, that he was worthy of their love, and in the process, leaving Charlie behind. Charlie hated it, and still does. He doesn’t get why Mac tries so hard when he’s so cool already. Why would he try to impress so many people when Charlie already knows how badass he is? Was he not enough?

Charlie took a sip from the cup in his hand, trying to push away the way the thoughts hurt his brain. Sara makes her way through the room, a happy smile across her face as she talks to the friend walking with her. Sara spots Charlie on the couch and waves, saying a quick “ill be back in a minute!” and making her way over to him. 

“Oh my god, Charlie! This party is popping!” Sara says cheerfully, taking a seat on the couch perpendicular from Charlie. Charlie forces a smile to mimic Sara’s.

“Like, you totally saved the party! It was soooo boring before you guys came!” 

“Oh, no problem.” Charlie says with a nod, only half listening. Sara nods along with him and clicks her tongue. 

“Is it ok to be honest with you for a second?” She asks. Charlie mumbles in reply. Sara takes his indistinct reply as a yes.

Sara begins to rant about her ex-boyfriend, or at least it starts as a rant about her ex-boyfriend. The girl manages to name drop everyone in school and ends up going into everyone’s complicated relationship with each other. Charlie feels hes being forced to endure a long recap of a show he has never watched nor has any interest in watching. Eventually he lets his brain slide into the familiar and comfortable feeling of white noise and fuzziness, no longer listening to Sara’s yammering, but giving the occasional gasp or ‘oh my god’ whenever she pauses for a reaction. 

“So that’s why I was wondering if you’ll go to prom with me.” She says.

“Sure” Charlie says still on autopilot, without letting the words soak into his head before replying.

“Oh my gosh! Sweet! I’ll see you then!” She says cheerfully, trotting away with a pep in her step. Charlie lets his eyes close sleepily for a second, when he opens them again he sees that he’s spilt his drink on himself, his shirt now soaked with beer. He also sees Dee sitting in from of him in Sara’s place, in the middle of another rant. Charlie feels like he’s in that Bill Murray movie, Warthog Weekend or Hamster Holiday or something along those lines. Dees drunkenly whining about Trey and prom and whatever, spilling bits of her drink every time she gestures. Charlie feels awkward watching Dee sob and complain like an alcoholic with her mascara smearing on her face, he feels like he should just get up and leave her alone to cry about this shit by herself. Charlie is ripped away from his brain fog when we feels a large hand grip his arm.

“Uh, I’m just going to steal Charlie for a second.” Mac says, his hand sitting possessively on Charlies shoulder. He squints at Dee, looking her up and down pitifully before turning to Charlie, his breath is warm and full of beer. Dee grumbles, stands up on shaky legs and waddles back into the kitchen. “Whats going on with her?” He says with a small laugh, grabbing Charlies forearms and helping him up to his feet. Charlies legs aren’t cooperating after sitting down for so long, and as soon as Mac helps him up off the couch he’s almost to the floor. Mac grabs him before he hits the ground and places Charlies arm across his shoulders, holding onto his wrist and letting Charlie lean his weight on him. Charlies feels his face go pink from the contact, but he doesn’t say anything except smile at Mac. Mac half-carries Charlie through the living room.

“Dude you should’ve seen it! I wrecked some kid at flip cup and totally embarrassed him in front of everyone. It was awesome.” Mac smiles excitedly, gripping Charlies wrist tightly. He was expecting Charlie to get hyped up about it, but instead he seems grumpy and not enthusiastic in the slightest. 

“Wh- What does it matter dude?” Charlie stutters through a burp, stopping in his tracks. Mac looks at him with a confused expression.

“Huh?” Mac asks, their faces are so close together that it forces Mac look away again.

“These kids are like… seventeen, man. Do you honestly care what a bunch of seventeen year-olds think about you?” Charlie questions, his head cocked heavily to one side. Mac doesn’t know where its coming from, but he tries to laugh it off.

“Haha, what? No! I don’t give a shit. I never said I did.” He says in his defence, though not convincingly. Charlie just looks at him with tired eyes in both a literal and figurative sense. Charlie groans and slumps down heavily in Macs grasp.

“Whoa, dude, what are you doing?” Mac asks, struggling to keep Charlie held up, starting to go down with him.

“Tired. Gonna lie down.” Charlie mumbles matter-of-factly, hitting the carpeted floor with a soft thump, laying down behind a couch.

“Dude you can’t sleep here.” Mac complains like a concerned dad.

“Everyone else is doin’ it” Charlie grunts, gesturing around the room where teenagers are sleeping at the dinner table and on top of each other on the floor. Mac doesn’t say anything but sits down next to Charlie and lays his back on the back of the couch. Charlies head is so close to his hand, he sees an image flash in his mind of him running his ringers through Charlies hair while he sleeps, he pushes the thought from his mind, feeling a sickly wave of guilt flow through his stomach. Charlie rolls onto his back, letting his spine stretch out against the floor. He turns his head to Mac with sad eyes.

“You know, you don’t have to try so hard to prove yourself to everyone.” Charlie utters, one hand laying on his stomach, another out towards Mac. Mac doesn’t speak but returns Charlies sad look. After a moment he lets himself slide down the back of the couch and onto the floor next to Charlie.

“You’re cool as you are. You don’t have to pretend.” Charlie expresses with his eyes studying Macs face, who is now laying on his side. Mac wonders how Charlie can only put together coherent sentences when he’s drunk. He wonders how he can tell Charlie how pretty he is without feeling guilty about it. Their faces are so close together again, it makes Macs heart race. He reflexively brings his head into Charlies side, hiding his face from him. Charlies happy he’s nuzzled into him and can’t see his face either, because its currently burning a bright shade of red. Charlie brings his arm around Mac, resting his hand on his shoulder protectively. Mac feels emotion welling up in his throat and smiles into Charlie’s chest, wrapping an arm across him so he could be held closer, appreciating the warmth radiating from Charlie with a small hum. Charlie can’t wipe a sleepy smile from his face and moves his hand from Mac shoulder to his hair, his fingers gently tracing shapes in his scalp as they fall asleep.

\--


End file.
